Acting with Urgency: How AAF & Philanthropy Showed Up at UNGA80

At UNGA80 and Climate Week in New York, Michael Mapstone highlighted the need for philanthropy to move beyond talk and act with urgency.

Every September, New York becomes the stage for the world’s most urgent conversations. At this year’s UNGA80 and Climate Week, the atmosphere was charged as global leaders, civil society and corporates gathered amid geopolitical strain and polarised debates. Much of the discourse circled crisis and contraction, with systems under pressure and trust in short supply.

Amid that backdrop, Michael Mapstone, CEO of the Anglo American Foundation, pointed to a different current: “If you stand in Johannesburg, in Lima, in Manila, you don’t hear doom and gloom. You hear urgency. Ingenuity. Energy. Hustle.” His call to philanthropy was not for more rhetoric, but for action that is catalytic, moving capital at the pace of ideas, taking risks where others cannot, and backing ecosystems that allow locally led solutions to thrive.

Catalytic Energy in the Side Events

That spirit was most palpable in the partner-hosted side events. At the Global Africa Business Initiative’s (GABI) Unstoppable Africa, co-convened by the United Nations Global Compact and the African Union, leaders spoke with confidence about the continent’s pivotal role in shaping global markets. The World Economic Forum’s Corporate Leadership Council and Schwab Foundation reception encouraged philanthropy and business to shift from transactional relationships to collective action. The Conduit dinner on the Philanthropic Reset, supported by Google.org, asked what it would take for AI to serve as a force for good if funders were willing to take risks. At Business Fights Poverty, the focus was on aligning inclusion, jobs and sustainability with practical commitments. And at Africa Soft Power’s convening at the Citigroup Center, creativity, storytelling and culture were championed as engines of transformation, leaving participants with a sense of inspiration and momentum.

What Catalytic Philanthropy Demands

At UNGA2025, AAF co-hosted the Philanthropy as a Catalyst in Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships for Sustainable Development event alongside WINGS, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and the European Union. The gathering brought philanthropy, government, multilaterals and the private sector into dialogue on how to unlock and align capital for greater impact. In his reflections, Michael stressed that communities do not need more talk. They need capital that moves at their pace, long-term commitments that withstand setbacks, and funders prepared to take risks where others hesitate.

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The launch of a Funders’ Roundtable on the Future of Development, co-hosted with Hilton and Packard, marked one step toward that vision. It is a platform to coordinate resources, share lessons and engage more strategically with governments and multilaterals.

From Crisis Language to Course Correction

The week’s debates often circled crisis, but Michael reframed it as course correction. While UNGA80 and Climate Week sometimes felt heavy with contraction, elsewhere people are already reimagining economies, businesses and social contracts in real time. Their urgency is real. Their energy is high.

Philanthropy’s role is to meet that energy with catalytic action: to act not as a patron but as a peer, to move capital where it matters most, and to create the scaffolding that allows communities to thrive. If the sector can do this, then moments like UNGA will move beyond rhetoric and deliver on their promise, not just conversations in New York but change felt in Johannesburg, Lima, Manila and beyond.

The week was also a chance for AAF trustees to connect in person. Elaine Smith Genser and Mamadou Biteye joined Michael in New York for midweek discussions, strengthening the alignment between governance and the Foundation’s catalytic role in the sector.